Possessions
by Lana Archer
Summary: Bonnie Bennett's life is uprooted by a family scandal that sends them to LA, right next door to the Salvatores, who have enough baggage of their own. [a spin on season one of American Horror Story/M for violence, language and sex]
1. PT I

**Note: **I gave up on the version I did before. Anyone remember it? No? Good.

Reviews turn this from a one-shot, into adventure time!

* * *

Abigail Bennett: Nicole Beharie (_Sleepy Hollow_)

Rudy Bennett: Winston Duke (_Us_)

Lucy Bennett: Indya Moore (_Pose_)

Hayden McClaine: Dewanda Wise (_Someone Great_)

Giuseppe Salvatore: Jeffrey Dean Morgan (_Supernatural_)

Lily Salvatore: Vera Farmiga (_Bates Motel_)

* * *

** PT I**

_everything you own in a box to the left_

"Don't freak out until I'm done talking, okay?" Bonnie instructed, passing one of her very best friends, Tyler Lockwood half of her doughnut.

The two of them were sitting poolside in the backyard of the Bennett house, under the flutter of the leafy trees above.

"I'll chew." He offered, promptly stuffing the entire thing in his mouth.

"So...remember that time we kinda thought my dad was having an affair with that student of his, who was like, _always_ at his talks and whatever?" Tyler nodded. "Well, my mom apparently walked in on them one day while I was at cheer practice-" Tyler choked on the ball of pastry in his mouth. "I _know_. Here's the thing though...to save their marriage... or so they say... we're all moving to LA."

"_What_-"

"Ty-"

"That doesn't even make sense? They could get a divorce, like mine. You could stay here," his head was tilted as he began to process the sheer audacity of uprooting Bonnie's life in her second last year of high school. "We're supposed to get through all of this shit together, remember?"

"I don't _want_ to leave," Bonnie explained. Her green eyes shone earnestly. "This was never the plan."

"Move in with us, she's never home anyway and you know he's always off 'campaigning'." Bonnie's heart clenched at the thought of how alone he'd be without her.

"They said I have to." Bonnie sighed loudly, looking down. "The papers for the new house were signed before they even told me. This morning when I woke up, dad had already piled up a stack of boxes and some tape in the corner of my room-"

"This isn't fair!" Tyler growled, wiping angrily at the sides of his mouth, to get rid of the cinnamon sugar. Bonnie helped him and then took both of his hands.

"I'm leaving the first week of the holidays. Come stay with me there for break? I don't know, I'm trying to make this work." Bonnie rambled.

"Will they even let me?" Tyler wondered.

"I don't give a fuck," Bonnie said, surprising herself, "I need you with me."

* * *

All of her life, Bonnie had only known one place.

Her parents had travelled to and fro between them, but she'd always been in school. Outside of work, her parents never had time for a real holiday.

Her mother was an interior designer, and her father was an acclaimed psychologist, who had a history of high profile cases, and a reputation that had set him in good stead for life. Every magazine spread her mother's work was showcased in, was matched by a summit her father was speaking at.

Before the scandal had broke, they'd been labelled perfect, inspiring, a cornerstone in the black community in Mystic Falls.

Bonnie had managed to live a life between the chaos of the both of them.

She'd made friends, the cheer-leading team, debate team, had gotten listed on every stage production since she'd started at Mystic Falls High. She knew her neighbours as well as she knew her own extended family, she'd lived in the same house for as long as she could remember. The resentment boiling in the chambers of her chest began to ache at the thought of never experiencing anything she'd taken as a given, ever again.

One of them being her best friend Tyler.

She loved him. Had loved him when he was dating head cheer-leader Caroline Forbes, and after, when Caroline had kissed her boyfriend at the time, Matthew Donovan at one of the bonfires in the cemetery. She loved him more when he punched Matt in the face and told his ex-girlfriend to get lost. But she loved him the most when he wrapped his jacket around her and walked them both back to his Jeep, to drive her home.

She'd waited most of the night for him to be asleep, so that she could watch his face in the moonlight.

She spent that whole night wishing she was allowed to kiss him.

A month later, her life fell apart.

* * *

Bonnie was walking through the halls with her headphones on.

With it being the last week of school term, everyone was in good spirits.

Adventures were being planned, the decade dance was the coming Friday, and between the drama of her own love life and her parent's, Bonnie wasn't exactly taking part in any social interactions anymore.

Tyler'd had a meeting with the prom committee, so he was dealing with Caroline and Matt while Bonnie did her best to disappear into the colour scheme of the hallway. Her cellphone buzzed, interrupting her humming as she approached her locker.

_Still crying then, huh? - Luce_

Before she could type a response, her aunt Lucy chose to call. Slipping her headphones off and onto her neck, she unplugged the chord and answered the call.

"How are you doing, baby?" Lucy's voice was warm as always, but wherever she was, it was loud and festive.

"Are you still in New Orleans?" Bonnie wondered instead.

"Hell no! Elijah Mikaelson is not boyfriend material. Honey, no. I'm in Barcelona!"

"We're moving to L.A." Bonnie informed her.

"I knew that."

"Your brother-in-law had an affair."

"Did my sister grill his ass, or her brain?" Lucy asked.

"What part of we're moving to L.A makes you think my mother put up a fight?" Bonnie chewed out, leaning against her locker.

"Oh baby...you're mad huh?"

Tears came in the blink of an eye as Bonnie deflated at the sound of sincere sympathy in her aunt's voice.

"I don't want to leave because of this," Bonnie said between hiccups and crying. Wiping at her face she made a beeline for the nearest bathroom. "Everything I have is here." Walking into a cubicle, the girl shut the door, closed the toilet seat and sat on top of it, lifting her feet onto the lid as well, so that she could rest her chin on her knees.

"That's not true, baby." Bonnie listened as Lucy moved somewhere quieter, shutting a window and giving her undivided attention.

"You know what I mean, Lucy." Bonnie defended sadly, "the same way you like to live your life crossing borders and getting into trouble, is the same way I like knowing my postman's name, seeing Tyler every day, walking Gush with Mrs Friedman from across the road." Bonnie pressed her eyes shut, willing the tears to stop. "Do you know how many kids have asked me about it? How little tact and respect the women in this small town have?" Bonnie took in a deep breath.

"Our entire lives are falling apart, and my mother's solution to all of it, is to take all of this baggage with us, to a different city. Like the scope of the people she's so desperate to impress don't have fucking instagram-"

"Language-"

"And dad is even worse. He's started calling me champ again, like one of those old white men he loves so much. Neither of them are being honest with me, nevermind one another, and I'm just supposed to let this situation drag me out of my life and into a new school, a new neighbourhood, w-w-what am I going to do? How am I supposed to move past this when I feel like I'm the only one being punished?"

Lucy sighed long and low.

"Baby you know that's not true. You're just the only innocent one between you. Well, you and Gush." Bonnie knocked her forehead against her knees. "Get your head up off of your knees girl, we have thinking to do."

"Please...call her, or kidnap me, or just-"

"I'm gonna talk to her okay, baby?"

"Thank you." Bonnie exhaled into her sweater, wiping at her face again.

"I love you, Bonnie-bee."

"Love you too, Lucy-bee." Her aunt made a quick kissing sound, and hung up. Bonnie packed her headphones and cellphone into her bag, before stepping out of the cubicle.

Making her way to the mirrors and sinks, she put her bag down beside a sink and tied up her hair. Splashing cold water on her face until she felt all evidence of her crying was gone, Bonnie then dried off and let her hair loose. As she was fluffing her lengthy curls, Caroline Forbes walked in, stopping her hands as they hung mid-air.

"Get out." Bonnie said seriously when Caroline froze as well.

"Can we just talk about what happe-"

"Can you give me some privacy, or is that just another thing you want to take away from me?" Bonnie spat harshly.

"Fine. I'll leave." Bonnie bugged her eyes out until the other girl did just that.

Fixing her make-up, she smoothed a little product onto her hair as well and left it falling down in waves until her waist.

"Pull it together." Bonnie said to her reflection, before shouldering her bag and walking out.

* * *

Tyler was waiting for her at the end of the school day, as she made her way out of the building, talking to Jeremy Gilbert.

"Don't be so hard on yourself Jer, your style needs to be refined, not changed completely okay? No one just wakes up with everything they need to be the artist they want to be. Gotta earn that shit."

"You're the best, Bon. Thank you! See you later."

"Bye!" She sang over her shoulder, as she ran over to Tyler.

"Practice is cancelled." He told her as they hugged.

"Are milkshakes at The Grill cancelled, too?" Bonnie pouted, making him laugh.

"Of course not, get in."

* * *

Abigail Bennett had just sent her husband the email confirming her daughter's schedule of the new school near their new home when her phone rang.

Seeing who it was that was calling, she rolled her eyes and ignored the call.

Her phone rang another three times before she answered.

"Let me guess," Abby said by way of greeting, "I've done something wrong."

"What? You thought hiding behind your husband's infidelity would make you a saint?" Her sister Lucy shot back.

"Fuck you, what do you want?"

"Bonnie's magic is lifting." Lucy said matter-of-factly.

"_Impossible_." Abigail hissed under her breath, eyes flickering around her office unnecessarily.

"Then explain why a simple emotion tether is letting me see through her eyes."

"My powers were _taken_ from me," Abby ground out through gritted teeth, "There is literally no source for her to have gotten magic from."

"Maybe the people who screwed you over are playing a new game?" Lucy mused, "You did underestimate the shit out of them-"

"I made a _hard_ decision-"

"And you chose _wrong_-" Lucy clapped back.

"I lost everything!" Abby cried.

"Not yet...but at the rate you're going...you will." Lucy ended the call with that, leaving Abigail to fret in the silence of her opulent office.

* * *

Bonnie'd gone to the bathroom just as their shakes had arrived, and on her way back to Tyler's booth, Matt stepped into view.

"Bon, can we talk? It's been a month..." He said, scratching the back of his head the way she'd found so endearing.

"A month of hints that seemed to have missed." Bonnie said curtly, crossing her arms.

"I was trying to give you space for what happened with your parents, but I still called, I still _tried_-"

"And it's still not good enough." Bonnie snapped. "Matt...I was in _love_ with you, I did everything in my power to make sure you were happy, that I wasn't too needy, that we fooled around enough, that I was there for every away game, that you'd be proud of me, that you'd never have to ever think about anyone else-"

"I _know_," he said, voice begging, eyes shining, "The idea that this one mistake I made, had the kind of timing that ended up being something I can't fix, and I don't want that, Bon. I love you...I'm still in love with you. Please let me fix this. Come to the dance with me." Bonnie waved a hand between as her mind reeled with his words.

"Or what? I'm the villain? Because now _I'm_ the one telling _you_ you're not good enough? in public? Making a spectacle of us all over again?" Bonnie asked pointedly, aware that there were eyes on them. "Did you stop to think for a single second what I needed? Because the word sorry has yet to leave your mouth."

"Well, I am. I _am_ sorry!" He insisted as Tyler approached, swinging his arm around Bonnie's shoulder as he joined them.

"As you should be, Donovan." Tyler winked. "Now fuck off before I add some fresh colour to those blue eyes."

Matt smiled a bitter smile.

"Was it really me kissing Caroline that stopped you from picking up one of the thousand times I called, or was it him?" Bonnie didn't even have time to react, as he turned from them and walked straight out of the restaurant.

"Shows over, suckers." Tyler said loudly, locking eyes with everyone who'd done nothing but eavesdrop since Matt and Bonnie had started talking. "Don't you have a culture to appropriate?" He hissed at a group of cheer-leaders that had taken his ex-girlfriend's side, ostracizing Bonnie since the news broke her family's scandal as well. "Sycophants." He hissed under his breath, steering Bonnie back to their booth.

"What did your mom say, by the way?" Bonnie asked, ready for a subject change.

"About?" Tyler wondered around a mouthful of fries.

"You coming with us for break?"

"Oh, she doesn't care. She even gave me spending money to spite my father. So when my father asked, I lied and doubled the amount she'd given me, and he doubled that. It landed in my account this morning. I booked our tickets, business class, obviously."

"My parent's are gonna be pissed." Bonnie chuckled. "Dad booked a movie van for us to drive in, the bulk of everything has already been sent to the new house."

"They can take Gush, you and I are going on vacation. Fuck our shitty parents, and fuck our shitty exes!"

They clinked their milkshake glasses and laughed.

"Let's go walk Gush, please, he misses you." Bonnie batted her eyelashes, feeling her spirits lift for the first time in a while.

"Anything for you, Bon." Tyler beamed.

* * *

Stefan watched from the kitchen window, as the movers delivered furniture, a co-coordinator pacing back and forth, confirming this and that.

His father made his presence known suddenly, clearing his throat.

"Spot our new neighbours?" The father wondered.

Stefan saw a flicker of his brother's silhouette in a bedroom in the empty house, and quickly said a small prayer for whoever was about to move into it.

"Nothing yet." Stefan said, turning away from the window before he triggered his father's temper.

* * *

**A/N: **Bonnie and Stefan are going to be neighbours! Bonnie and Tyler would make perfect lovers! BUT magic has other plans for the both of them.


	2. PT II

**Note: **Thanks to everyone who reviewed, entertaining the audacity I had to start a new fic, lol! Excited for ya'll to get into this!

Enjoy xoxo

* * *

**PT II**

_when you're alone with me_

_you never come up short_

Straight after milkshakes as the sun was doing it's last rounds, Tyler and Bonnie took Gush, an overeager black Labrador for a walk.

Living in Mystic Falls meant living on the edge of a vast forest that encroached onto everyone's property. At the back of the Bennett house there was a low gate that swung open to a thin pathway leading into the trees.

Bonnie only walked this path when she had company, something her parent's had drilled into her from a young age, and even without Mrs Friedman, Tyler counted, so the two set off into the woods. They walked for a while with Gush on his leash, trotting obediently, but frothing over every new addition to the plant-life surrounding them.

"I'm gonna finish packing before the dance." Bonnie was saying as she took the leash off of her dog, letting him power forward happily.

"If you even slightly feel like not going, I'll ditch too." Tyler vowed.

"First of all, you're on the committee-"

"Which means, what exactly? If I don't want to be there, I won't be. They don't own me."

"You got this far, you should see it through." Bonnie advised, quirking a brow at him, and he rolled his eyes in return.

"I don't believe in doing anything purely under obligation anymore, it annoys me." Tyler said with a sigh. "I'm more interested in the things I _actually_ want to do."

"Like what?" Bonnie said with a grin up at him.

"I don't fucking know, I got a backbone like a week ago, I'm still figuring it out," they laughed. "I was...though, sort of thinking about something."

"What?" But Bonnie was distracted by Gush's excited barking. "What is it, gush-gush?"

The dog kept barking, as it stood in front of a tree stump.

The two of them walked over to inspect it and saw a circle of crystals surrounding blood-splatter in the middle.

"Jesus-" Tyler immediately pulled Bonnie behind him.

"Should we call it in?" Bonnie wondered, peaking from around his shoulder. Gush nudged the back of her leg with his nose.

Tyler lifted a hand, hovering a palm over the collection of objects, lowering it.

"What are you doing?" Bonnie whispered, fretting.

"I don't know, it's warm."

"_Warm_?" Bonnie frowned, pulling his hand back. "We don't know what it is, Ty. Don't touch it."

"True." The boy replied, still eyeing the stump in front of them.

"I'm calling the Sheriff." Bonnie decided, reaching for her cellphone in her pocket.

The stump began to distort and a loud buzzing, like a loose current of electricity, began to zap at the center, causing them to jump back.

They could only watch at the tree stump twisted and bent, the crystals lifting and orbiting above as the wood cracked open, splintered and crumbling below.

"What the-"

"-actual fuck." Tyler finished for her. They stood frozen still, with Gush barking again, as the crystals rose a little more and came to hover above Bonnie's head. Startled tears pricked at the edges of her eyes as she watched Tyler's emotions play out across his face.

"Don't move," he said, one hand on her shoulder, the other, rising shakily to intercept one of the stones.

"What the hell is happening?" Bonnie gasped.

"It's kind of arranged as a crown-"

"A crown?-"

"Hang on, I'll take them off."

"Don't hurt yourself-" she worried her bottom lip between his teeth, her nervous hands at his waist, gripping the muscles there, for reassurance.

"Rather me than you," Tyler murmured under his breath, and Bonnie closed her eyes, bracing for impact.

A loud burst of wind came howling through the forest, circling the three of them, frightening them.

Tyler gave up on the crystals, and decided instead to simply cradle Bonnie to his chest as they rode out whatever it was.

Her hands wove around his middle soon after, and she buried her face in his chest, breathing hard.

The wind disappeared as suddenly as it came, but they stood like that, holding one another for a while longer, just in case.

All they could hear was Gush's low growling and their rattled breathing.

Tyler opened one eye, and watched Gush bare his teeth at something far off between the trees, the dog guarding Bonnie from a crouch. The tree stump was gone, so were the crystals.

Tyler's eye caught a flicker of light in the distance where the dog's attention was caught and something looked back. Chills burst all over his skin.

Bonnie's hands pulled back and he looked down at her, trying to gauge her expression.

"Are you okay?" He asked, but she seemed dazed. "Bon?"

"Yeah," she said swallowing, nodding as he tilted her face up to his. "I'm okay."

"Let's...let's go back inside." He decided, taking her hand, whistling for Gush to follow them. He took one last look over his shoulder, to convince himself that they were alone, but all it did was heighten his feeling of being watched, and he tugged Bonnie a little faster down the pathway back to her house.

* * *

Abigail was sitting on a stool beside the marble counter in the kitchen, when the two of them walked in through the back door.

She double-tapped the photo Bonnie had posted of Tyler squishing his face up against Gush's, with their garden in the background.

"Stay outside, Gushy." Bonnie said, shutting the door. Taking her shoes off, she put them next to Tyler's and watched him hug her mother hello.

"Have a good walk?" Abby wondered, folding her arms when Bonnie walked right by her instead of hugging her as well.

"It was more of a run," Bonnie spoke as she stuck her head in the fridge. "Can Ty stay for dinner?"

"Sure." Abby said, smiling at the boy who mouthed "thanks".

"Thank you." Bonnie said, a forced smile on her face, as she ticked her head up at Tyler, who followed after her as she went up to her room.

Abby watched them go, and sighed long and loud when she was alone in the kitchen again, feeling the quiet fill up all the empty space around her.

Hearing paws scratching against the ground, and ready to berate Gush's war against her flowers, Abigail hurried out the back door, curse-word at the ready.

She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw that, in the hole the dog was digging, was a pile of crystals.

With closer inspection, she realised that they were blood-binding crystals and ran back inside, grabbing the meat-mallet from the drawers and rushing back out.

Shushing Gush, and maneuvering him out of the way, she piled all the stones together and lifted the mallet, smacking the weight of it over and over until all that was left was a fine powder that she got into a pile. With one of the smaller shovels, she lifted the pile up and tossed them into the mouth of the fire pit. Making sure she didn't have any eyes on her, she looked back down and exhaled.

"_Incendia_." Abigail muttered, eyes lighting up with the colour of red and orange flame, as she turned the pile of crystal dust into ash, cleansing her and anyone else who'd come into contact with them, she hoped.

* * *

"Are we gonna talk about what happened in the woods?" Tyler began, as he shut her bedroom door behind him.

She'd already packed up most of her room; the lilac walls were bare, her records were all gone, along with the player and her guitar was in it's case. All of her clothes were in boxes, and true to form, she'd hung up all of her outfit's for her last week in Mystic Falls.

"You are _such_ a Virgo." Tyler laughed, unable to stop himself, watching her dig through her art supplies.

"Here," she said suddenly, her voice serious and distant, drawing him closer. "Look familiar?" She asked.

She'd sketched herself, months ago by the date scrawled at the bottom, eyes shut, hair twirling in a phantom breeze, as the same crystals hovered over her head.

"Weird." Tyler decreed.

"No kidding." Bonnie said, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.

"Maybe you're a witch." He half-joked.

"Then where are the rest of them?" Bonnie wondered. "...the rest of the witches?"

"in a cave somewhere, chanting by candlelight."

"You watch too much TV." Bonnie said, putting her drawing aside.

"Okay, don't freak out. Supernatural shit always happens to people in small towns, in ways they can't prove or simulate, and now, we're just added to the list of people that have seen weird shit." Tyler said with a shrug. "Could that have been alien-related?"

"Maybe." Bonnie said, frowning as she threw her hands up. "Nothing like that has ever happened before."

"And the odds of it happening again, in the four days you have left here...are _pretty_ slim."

"Fair. But-"

"Bon, nothing is going to happen to you. I'll be like the Kevin Costner to your off-key Whitney Houston."

"That's not funny-"

"I wasn't joking," Tyler said lifting his brows, "Have you heard you sing?"

"Shut up. I'm scared." She said, wrapping her arms around herself.

"And I'm saying I'm here." He said, smiling earnestly down at her, as he pulled her closer. "We can be scared, together."

_"Was it really me kissing Caroline that stopped you from picking up one of the thousand times I called, or was it him?"_

"What am I supposed to do without you?" Bonnie wondered, not really thinking about the consequences of that kind of question.

They were young. High school didn't matter much in the greater scheme of things. A year and a half apart wouldn't end their friendship.

But it wasn't that she wouldn't survive the distance her parent's were putting between them, it's that she didn't _want_ to.

Tyler blinked a few times, and then pulled away, and a part of Bonnie's heart burst, and deflated, like a screaming balloon, as it tore away from the rest of her heart, to spiral down, to the bottoms of her feet. The pain was instant and inexplicable.

"Sorry...I didn't mean, I- fuck." She turned away from him, her heart pounding with pain and embarrassment. "So stupid," she turned, ready to denounce ever having felt a human emotion when she jerked back, surprised at how close he was standing to her.

She'd never seen that look on his face before, never for her.

"I was going to fight this question until my dying day, before you asked me that," he said, his voice low and gruff, his hands flexing helplessly as they hung at his sides, almost itching for something.

"Ask me." She said, because she'd be honest. Too honest, probably.

"...Can I kiss you?" She hadn't expected that.

She was nodding before she even knew what was happening. Up on the balls of her feet, she tipped her head back, and held his gaze as they closed their arms around one another, pulling, feeling. She felt the front of her body hit his, his fingertips dancing at the nape of her neck, the goosebumps running over his skin under her touch. Barely a few seconds had passed as their mouths neared one another.

There was a loud knock on the door, her father no doubt, that tore them apart.

Rudy Bennett, in his six foot plus glory, swung her door open, already talking, bespectacled eyes glued to his iPhone screen,

"-so I said who knows, I've never met a kid who didn't like pizza, but I know you," Rudy said looking up, "Tyler. Good to see ya son," he stuck out his hand, paying no mind to the flush permeating the boy's skin.

"Mr Bennett." Tyler said, making sure to grip the man's hand soundly.

"Does Bonnie still like pizza?" Rudy asked, smiling at his daughter before his gaze went back to her friend. "She's changed her mind about a lot of things lately, you see. So I wanted to be sure."

Tyler looked to Bonnie, but she had her gaze fixed on the floor.

"Pepperoni and mushroom, extra cheese." Tyler said after an awkward beat of silence. "It's her favourite."

"Excellent." Rudy beamed, "Keep this door open, I know you're both invested in the sanctitude of heterosexual relationships, and I fully support that, but I'd ask her to keep the door open no matter who was inside here, just to keep some kind of decorum in place. You understand, I'm sure." Rudy said with a wink, and Tyler put his hands in his jean pockets, unsure of what to say. "Oh," the man bent at the torso, having forgotten, "Which pizza would you like?"

"The same as Bon is good."

"Gotcha." Rudy said, eyes back on his phone, swinging the door shut behind him.

"Whoops!" He laughed, opening it back up and leaving them looking after him as he chuckled down the hallway.

"I think he's lost his mind." Bonnie said quietly after a while. "He's always talking these days, but he never really _says_ anything anymore. You know?"

"My father is the mayor of this stupid town. Of course I know." Bonnie nodded, her mind elsewhere.

"Can we talk about that?" Tyler wondered. She looked up at him, a little confused, and too far away.

"I'm moving at the end of the week, and after break, we're both going to have lives away from each other. I can't lose any more of you than I'm already about to." Bonnie said, reverting to her sensible self.

"So...we're not going to kiss each other? Ever?" Tyler asked.

"It's not what I want anymore." Bonnie said, and Tyler nodded, gesturing vaguely behind him.

"Yeah, your dad mentioned something about that." He said, with a small sigh.

"Don't be a dick." Bonnie huffed, crossing her arms.

"Not really my style." Tyler agreed. "I know the timing is shit, Bon. I get that. But high school isn't forever... _we_ might be." Her eyes filled up at his words.

"Then we'll get through this, won't we?" Bonnie said, pulling her sleeves past her hands, walking around him. "Let's go see what's on TV."

* * *

Stefan was sitting outside, long after sunset, eyes shut. Praying.

Well, that's what his father had always taught him to call it in case someone asked, but he knew what it really was.

He was casting.

His brother Damon had killed twenty-four students before skipping out of the ensuing chaos, only to be found later the same day, and gunned down in his bedroom.

So Stefan had taken to cleansing that house from top to bottom, even after his father had moved them out.

_All_ the way next door.

He didn't want anyone else to be hurt by what had destroyed their family.

There used to be five of them.

His father Giuseppe, his mother Lily, his older brother Damon, and his younger brother, Enzo.

But only he and his father survived the thing that lived on in the house.

And now someone was going to move in over the weekend, and get drawn into the nexus of magic that ruled there.

Lily's magic.

Stefan's chest expanded as he cast spell after spell, letting waves of magic roll off of him, and into the house.

A light goes on, in Damon's room. Stefan feels it before he opens his eyes to see it.

His older brother stares back at him, ink black hair hanging over most of his face. But the gaze connects them, and holds them suspended.

"I miss you." Stefan says.

Damon disappears.

"Dinner's ready!" Giuseppe calls out to him. "Get inside here!"

As he stands to leave he doesn't see the figure of a woman appear in the kitchen window of his old home, watching him.

* * *

**A/N: **Lily is a wild one! Reviews give my muse wings!

Stay excellent xo


	3. PT III

**Note: **Back at it again with that new-new. You're welcome lovelies

Thank you so much for your reviews, really, really XO

* * *

**PT III**

_I'd rather you trust me than to love me_

Tyler was either chewing pizza or the inside of his mouth over dinner.

Bonnie kept sneaking glances at him, wondering why she had to fuck up even more of her life, it being what it currently was. He didn't catch her looking, because he kept his eyes on her father, or mother, or the TV after.

"So we're in a fi-"

"I should get going-" He said, standing to his feet. It was just them, Abby had muttered something about deadlines and Rudy had been in his study since the pizza was delivered.

"You don't have to leave-"

"I know... I want to." Tyler said, levelling her with a strange gaze she couldn't place an emotion to. She didn't like the idea of him leaving, not to go home, not the room even, none of it. A long moment of silence trapped them in eachother's space, just staring, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"I'm sorry." Bonnie said, knowing she needed to say something. "I'm so fucking stressed right now, all I want to do is cry. I know it's not an excuse, but like, it's bleeding into the rest of my life...and unluckily for you, you're the only person I have so you're also the only sounding board I have."

"So you just decide what happens to us?" He asked without precedent, the same look on his face.

"What? No, I..I'm trying my best-"

"Is this about Matt?" Her head reared back.

"Nothing I feel for you has anything to do with him."

"You sure about that?" Tyler asked again.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Bonnie quipped in return. "So he's bitter and snarky and now _I'm_ the one with baggage?"

"That's not what I'm saying."

"Are you saying you still have feelings for Caroline?" Bonnie asked, mirroring him.

"That's not the same as the question I asked."

"And that's not an answer." Bonnie returned.

"I told you we could be forever and you told me you didn't even want to try, remember? Like, a fucking hour ago up in your room when we almost kissed?" Tyler crossed his arms and huffed, and more than anything, she wanted to hold him, or fix it, without breaking anything else.

Bonnie hadn't exactly done a tally or anything, but Tyler, Lucy and Gush were the last things she had going for her in terms of unconditional love, and asking for anymore, when she knew there was next to nothing she could give either of them in return right now, just felt too selfish.

"I wanted to kiss you long before I even kissed Matt for the first time." Bonnie said, throwing her arms out, knowing trying to explain anything else was too convoluted and she only had so much time with him anyway-

"I've been in love with you this whole time. The night Matt kissed Caroline at the bonfire, I wanted to tell you actually; come up with a plan that wouldn't blow it all up in our faces, and then they went ahead and chose each other anyway."

"You were in love with me?" She swallowed the thud of her heart to answer his real question.

"Am." She corrected him. "And it's hard, and I'm confused, and I'm going to be without you when we leave-"

"Bonnie, breathe, come here." He held his arms open and a tiny sob shifted her breathing as she hurried into his embrace, nuzzling herself into the heat and smell of him. He waited until her breathing was smooth and even.

"If you don't want to kiss me because you'll miss me too much, that's fine," he said into the crown of her curls, "But if you think kissing me is going to ruin what we have, you're wrong," she lifted her head up to lock eyes with him. "I think lying about how we feel is the worst thing we can do to the people we feel for."

"You're always right and I hate you." Bonnie mumbled. He laughed, and then the warmth came back into his face, and suddenly he was looking at her the way he always did, the way she'd always want him to.

"Kiss m-" She pressed her mouth to his before he could finish his retort.

The soft separation of their mouths startled them both when she pulled away.

The colour of his eyes disappeared into the shadows as they stepped in and out of the rays of overhead light. Slowly, they made their way out of the back door of the kitchen, into the garden, their favourite place in the world.

Every step she took, he followed.

"Kiss me again." He said as her feet pressed into the soft grass. She pecked him, knowing her restraint was trickling away, just about as quickly as every urge she'd had for him bubbled up to the surface of her lips.

"Kiss me back." She whispered against his mouth.

So he did.

His hands, warm and wide, dug into her clothes, gripping for purchase, while wishing it was her skin. He ducked his head down to meet her mouth and pressed their lips together. And again, with more pressure, and then again, with more pressure.

Bonnie's hands slipped up and over his shoulders, her nails skimming his shirt, itching to tear it off and show her parents what love looked like, since they'd forgotten.

Opening her mouth, she let her tongue curl out, body stiffening under the fright of satisfaction when his tongue moved deflty against hers.

She lifted up onto the balls of her feet, and pressed her body against his, knowing she'd never forgive herself if she didn't do it at least once.

Tyler tugged on her bottom lip with his teeth, hands sliding down the side of her figure, knowing he'd never forgive himself if he didn't know the feeling.

"I'm going to miss the shit out of you." Bonnie breathed against his mouth.

"Good luck trying to get rid of me long enough to miss me." He countered, cupping her face and kissing her again.

* * *

The last days of school were always mere formalities.

Wednesday was the last game, Thursday was the decade dance, and Friday was the bonfire.

Bonnie intended to spend every second she could with Tyler, growling at her parent's unsubtle questioning with receipts of their bullshit instead.

Rolling her eyes, she fixed the hem of her cheer-leading skirt, tilting her head at her reflection.

It was the last game of the season, which meant, this was technically the last time she was going to wear the damn thing.

"You look hot." Bonnie turned to see Lucy, holding out her arms.

"Lucy!" Bonnie squeaked, running over to throw her arms around her aunt. "How are you here right now? No, don't tell me, I don't care. Thank you, I've missed you."

"I missed you too, baby." Lucy grinned, squeezing a little tighter, and holding on a little longer, just how Bonnie liked.

"Is mom here?" Bonnie wondered when they separated. Lucy shook her head, no. "...Dad?" Bonnie winced.

"Nope." Lucy beamed. "I told those grumpy shits to stay home so I could cheer you on in peace."

"An actual angel!" Bonnie laughed. "Can we go to the Grill after? Make it last?"

"Anything for you honey, you know that."

* * *

The game was a doozy. Tyler was on top form, and Matt had to haul ass to keep up with him, along with the rest of the team.

Bonnie knew her throat would be dried out and aching in the morning from all her screaming, but she couldn't help herself.

"So...it's official then?" Caroline asked, shaking her pom-poms halfheartedly beside Bonnie.

Kicking her leg up and wooping with joy when Tyler ducked passed another player to make a run for it, she rolled her eyes at the blonde and sighed.

"Not that it has anything to do with you, but this is my last week here." Caroline hadn't expected that. "And Tyler is the only thing that matters, not any of the other bullshit you and Matt are so caught up in."

"We're not caught up in anything," Caroline said with a shrug, "It was a mistake, like we both told you and Ty." Bonnie clenched her jaw, only just stopping herself from telling the other girl to keep Tyler's name out of her mouth. "Matty doesn't know you're leaving, does he?"

"I guess he will now." Bonnie sighed, with a bitter smile up at Caroline.

"We used to be friends, you know?" The blonde reminded her.

"Yeah, then Elena died and I started dating her boyfriend and you called me a cold-hearted slut, like I didn't already know."

"I liked him too." Caroline defended.

"Then you win." Bonnie growled, throwing her arms out. "See, this is why we didn't last." Bonnie gestured angrily between them, waving off the other dancers, "It's always a fucking competition with you. Well, guess what Caroline, you're not the only one who's dad had an affair, you're not the only one who lost Elena and you're not the only one who lost Matt...So...just fucking get over yourself already."

"I'm sorry you have to leave." The blonde said, as earnestly as Bonnie'd seen in years. Drawing in a breath, she looked back out to where Tyler was throwing his arms up and yelling out a celebratory cry after getting another touchdown.

"Me too."

* * *

At the Grille Bonnie was huddled up in a booth opposite Tyler and next to Lucy.

"It's good to see you." Tyler said after Bonnie's aunt had reached across the table to squeeze his hand with a grin.

"You too, Ty. You killed it tonight."

"Eh, played like it was my last game." He said with a small shrug. Lucy snuck a peak at Bonnie at that, and sighed inwardly.

"Look, I know as the adult here I have to maintain the illusion of decorum or some shit," Bonnie snorted, smiling when Lucy took her hand, "But this is a difficult situation and you're both allowed to feel however you want to feel about it."

"But," she went on, reaching out for Tyler's hand as well, quirking her mouth to the side when he took it, "What's more important is that you listen to those feelings, and figure out what they're trying to help you to decide. To feel is important, sure, but if it doesn't lead you somewhere, you're just being indulgent and ignorant, and there's enough of that in this situation already, you feel me?"

"Yup." Tyler said, nodding, feeling an ease slip over him at her words. She always managed to do that somehow.

"We feel you, Lucy-Bee." Bonnie swore, kissing her aunt's nuckles. "And we missed you."

Lucy freed their hands and took Bonnie's face in her hands and kissed her on the forehead, and again and again until the girl was in a fit of giggles, while Tyler beamed, looking on.

"I love you, and you're going to get through this." Lucy promised. "There's nothing we Bennett women can't do."

"Okay." Bonnie said, doing her best to believe her aunt's words.

"Believe that, Bon, _believe_ that." Bonnie felt a flash of heat spark in her chest, but swallowed it, focusing on her aunt's speaking instead.

"I _believe_," Bonnie drawled, "That we're getting double burgers and sweet potato fries," she turned, having felt the waiter's presence, grinning when she was right. "Extra cheese for Ty, no fries for Lucy, and two strawberry milkshakes and a vanilla, please."

"Coming right up."

"I can't believe I still eat here." Lucy muttered, finally taking a look around the restaurant. "Do you know that wallpaper has been here since your grams was in high school?"

"I can't picture grams going to school here." Bonnie admitted.

"Neither could she, to be honest." Lucy shrugged, picking imaginary lint off of her cashmere sweater.

"How's the modelling going?" Bonnie asked, perking up.

"Ugh, it's so dramatic, everyone's worried about the Met." Lucy yawned. "Celebrities are so fucking predictable."

"What's the Met?" Tyler wondered innocently. Lucy inhaled drastically, hand to her chest and then remembered who she was talking to.

"Never change, Lockwood, never fucking change." She said, pointing a dainty, bejewelled finger at him, and he cackled.

* * *

"Sleepover!" Bonnie demanded, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she swung her aunt's hands to and fro with hers.

"Okay, but only because it'll piss your mom off."

"Excellent."

"I'll call you when I'm home." Tyler promised. "Lucy, as always, a pleasure." He covered his heart with his hands.

"Come here, kid," Lucy opened her arms, and as she hugged him, muttered low under her breath, "non ad praesidium."

Her magic wound around him, with the protection spell and she watched some of the colour return to his cheeks, and the bags under his eyes fade.

"Look after yourself, okay?" She quirked a brow at him.

"You got it."

"Good, now hug your girlfriend goodbye." Lucy said, with a cheeky grin.

Bonnie's cheeks warmed, but her alarm was short lived when he enveloped her into a tight hug.

"I love you." She said easily.

"Love you too. You two be good."

She watched him drive off before giving Lucy her attention again, and she knew then and there, she would never live a life she'd want, without Tyler in it.

* * *

When Abby came downstairs at witching hour, she found her sister and her daughter, wound together between blankets and snack packets, fast asleep while another episode of _Sense8_ played in the background.

A part of her wanted to be pleased that Bonnie still had someone parental-shaped, in and amongst all this. She just wished that she could've been that person for her child.

Then another part of her reared it's snarling head to remind her what happened the last time she tried to be the person her child needed. Her baby had died.

She'd made the wrong choice and her child had died.

And what had she done?

She'd lied about all of it. Everything known about her still-birth was a half-truth at best.

Not even Rudy knew the true extent of all of it, how inevitable it was. No, it was all something she'd have to live with.

"You could tell him." Lucy's voice startled her as she was turning the TV off.

Turning, Abby growled lowly, realising her sister was asleep, but even so, Lucy's head was turned towards her as she spoke.

"You could tell her, at the very least." Lucy offered, brow lifting in her sleep.

"You need to mind your own fucking business for once, and worry about your life and not mine." Abby hissed.

"My life is fine," Lucy said breezily, a smile pulling lazily at her sleeping face, "I know who I am, I know where my power lies and I'll be damned if I'm afraid of a witch who threw her heritage down the drain over a power trip."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Abby gasped, wondering how the hell she'd found out about any of it.

Abby could only watch as her sister's smile stretched and pulled, the witch baring her teeth now, a low rumbling sound bubbling up her throat.

"We have her, you know. We have all of them, because we have all of you." Lucy's voice was cut through with another's.

"I gave you what you wanted!" Abby screamed.

"No," Lucy said, rising to hover off of the ground, her blanket slipping off as she made her way to tower over Abby. "You gave what you could bare to lose...and what's the first rule of a witch's sacrifice?" Lucy tilted her head down at her sister.

"Quomodocunque exorcizari." Abby's clawed hand lifted and she watched her sister's body begin to writhe, "Quomodocunque exorcizari!"

"Baby wake up," Abby jerked awake at the feel of her husband's hands on her shoulders, shaking her gently.

"What," her eyes fluttered and she winced at the lamplight shining overhead. Was she in her office or his? Where was Bonnie? Lucy? "What the fuck?"

"I don't know, you were just like," she looked up at him and he stiffened and relaxed his body a few times to try and explain what ahd been happening before he'd come in to check in on her, "I don't know."

"Bad dream." She explained, wiping at her eyes. It was witching hour when she checked the time.

"No kidding, your neck is going to avenge itself for this one," Rudy joked, bringing a hand down onto the nape of her neck, beginning to smooth out the tension.

"Don't touch me." Abby said, annoyed and without much thought.

There was a thick silence.

"So I don't get to touch you anymore?"

"You do whatever you need to do to get that shit out of your system, as you always have, but I'm done with you bringing me down with you."

"I _miss_ you, I want _you_." He insisted.

"Just now or while you were fucking one of your students?" Abby shot back hotly. "Touch me again and I'll fucking divorce you."

"You don't mean that." Rudy looked genuinely hurt, it made her happy, which immediately made her feel sick to her stomach. Standing upright from where she'd been crouched over her house plans, she rolled her neck and gave a wide berth as she walked around him to leave.

"Does Bonnie look happy to you? Is this the peace that you were so adamant on keeping?" Abby wondered. "Either way, you can go fuck yourself." She smiled a ghost of a smile and shut the door behind her.

She went downstairs, and found the two of them exactly as she'd expected to. Wound around one another, betwee blankets and snack packets. The only difference was, the TV was already off. So she turned around and went to bed.

* * *

Stefan had been having dreams lately.

This beautiful girl. With thick, dark curls and bright green eyes.

He dreamt of her smile, her magic and her warm skin.

He felt like he'd dredged her up and out of his deepest fantasies and created her for himself.

She was impossible.

And he was grateful for that.

"Stefan," she always says, "Are you going to be sad all of your life?"

"Probably." He always admits.

"I don't want that for you, that makes me so fucking sad. I don't want that for you."

"Then come to me." He says as he always does.

"Just a little while longer," she says, like she always does as she closes the space between them.

The soft kiss is coming again.

"Please don't kiss me," he says this time. "It doesn't feel right."

She looks sad, and he immediately regrets it, but he knows he'll regret having to live outside of this fantasy more.

"Do I make you sad too?" She wonders now.

"Not in a way that makes it your fault." He says honestly.

"I promise I am on my way." She says. "I can't explain any of it, and when I get here, I probably won't get it either-"

"But you _are_ a witch?" He asks.

"I am." She says, nodding.

"How will I see you?" He wonders, "How will you find me?"

Like their magic, she turns and behind her, rises up a house Stefan would know anywhere.

His heart drops.

Jerking awake in a cold sweat, Stefan rips the bedding off of his skin that suddenly feels like it's on fire.

He pulls his shirt off as well, and then puts on his glasses.

Sighing when he realises all of his bedding is wet with sweat, he gets up, pulls all the linen off and chucks it in the washer, getting into the shower.

It's witching hour, which meant his father was out, probably his mother's grave.

It was the only time of day he had to himself.

And he wasted it now, fretting over the girl about to move in next door.

She couldn't know what she was getting into, if she did, she would put up a hell of a lot more of a fight.

Knowing there was no way he could find her just off of her face alone, he resigned himself to the stress of meeting her for the first time instead. The boy fell aslep chanting "non ad praesidium" under his breath, wishing he knew her name, so the protection spell could stick.

* * *

**A/N:** Reviews get me out of bed and upstairs to get myself something to eat.


	4. PT IV

**Note**: Seven months isn't bad for me at all. I didn't edit this! I never will!

Thank you to those who reviewed, I hope you enjoy this one, too.

* * *

PT IV

_Indulge me_

Bonnie was staring at her reflection in the mirror in the late afternoon light. Pulling in a pearl hair-comb into the side-path she'd made in her hair, she was finally satisfied.

Tyler would be here any minute now to take her to their last dance together, and she was listening to Moses Sumney while she finished getting ready; letting all of her emotions rise up to the surface.

Bonnie could feel an energy settle on the surface of her skin, like a kind of magic that left all her hairs on their ends, even prickling at her scalp. She was doing her best to swallow the anxious-feeling feeling down when there was a knock. Her heart burst at the thought of Tyler.

"Can I come in?" Her mother's voice called from the other end of her bedroom door.

"Sure," Bonnie called back over her shoulder, keeping her eyes on her black velvet dress, running her hands over her stomach as it toiled with knots and admitted disappointment.

Abby stepped in and immediately her pace was slowed when she took in Bonnie's form wrapped in a floor length velvet dress.

"Baby...you look gorgeous." Abby gasped.

"Don't sound so surprised." Bonnie quipped, chewing her lip.

"I didn't mean it like that," Abby said quickly. "I don't know why you always think I'm arguing with you." Abby said, crossing her arms, a small blue box shining in her hand.

"Maybe because I wish you would," Bonnie said, finally turning to look at the woman. "You know, so we could have an _actual_ conversation about all this at some point."

"I don't think we should be doing this when you're on your way out." Abby said with a loud sigh, knowing in her heart her daughter was right. She wasn't sure she could tell Bonnie everything, not when it meant that the whole truth would pull back the curtains of years of lying that went beyond her broken relationship with Rudy.

"Happy I could give you a more original excuse this time." Bonnie said turning back to her reflection, nervous hands going back to faffing over her appearance.

"Stop picking," Abby said, putting the box down and coming closer, "You look perfect. Grams would be so proud of the curls." Bonnie smiled at the memory of her grandmother. It had been the inspiration for her hair, truthfully. Thick; coiled, finger waves that framed her face, then the rest of her curls smoothed into thick ribbons hat fell far down her back, swaying over her open back as the velvet dress curled beautifully to the small of her back.

"Old Hollywood." Bonnie said with a playful eye-roll at the dance's theme.

"I think I have something to round it off, if you'd like it?" Abby offered, standing behind her daughter, ticking her head in the direction of where she'd left the Tiffany box on Bonnie's drawer.

"Sure, why not. Tyler should be here any minute."

"Great. Lemme grab it."

Bonnie watched her mother walk to her drawer, and wondered what it was; the thing Abby was hiding. Her mother had always had this glint about her; this mystery around the way she spoke of herself, her past, her family, her people. It was both protective and evasive. Where most people respected it, or even found it charming and alluring, Bonnie found it suspicious and frustrating. What good could come from a habit of half-truths?

Maybe it was a small-town thing, the girl mused, remembering how quickly Caroline had adopted a similar manner of speaking, thinking it had an air of class about it that she desperately wanted to emulate as her own life fell to tatters when her parents got a divorce. Who knew?

Abby pulled out a pearl choker and Bonnie's brows lifted.

"Is this how we're saying sorry now?" She wondered aloud.

"Yes and no," Abby said with a shrug, "It's been a while since dad and I have gotten you anything and you've never been the kind to ask. So..." Clasping it in place, she let her hands settle on Bonnie's shoulder and smiled, a sad, tired, smile.

"I _am_ sorry, and I _do_ owe you an explanation. I just...I don't know if I have the right words yet."

"Find them." Bonnie said after a while. "You're running out of time." They held one another's gaze for some time.

With no warning, Bonnie freed herself of her mother's hold and turned her music off, pulled on a pair of white, satin gloves up her forearms, and made her way downstairs. Abby stood alone in Bonnie's room a little while longer, and let the thick, throbbing ache in her throat grow, wishing selfishly that it would just suffocate her with no consequence.

* * *

When Bonnie made her way downstairs, she could hear her father at the front door, so she slowed down a little.

When Tyler made his way in, she stepped slowly into view, already grinning at the idea of being in his arms any second.

He turned at the sound of her heels on the stairwell and his mouth fell open a little as her heart lurched at the sight of him. He was dressed in a cream, three-piece with a black tie and fedora, making her giggle.

"Bonnie..." his hands went to his heart as he beamed, "I don't know if this dance even deserves this outfit. Honestly."

"Eh," she shrugged, kissing him on the cheek as she took the bouquet of sunflowers and roses from him, "Last dance and all."

"This is...how would Lucy say? '_Met_-worthy'"

Bonnie blushed at the compliments and handed the flowers to her father with a distracted 'i love, you bye' as her eyes stayed on Tyler as they made their way out the front door to his car.

* * *

In his car there was a thick silence that neither of them knew what to do with. It wasn't the kind of tension that followed hard feelings, but it still felt like something was going unsaid between them.

"I think I'm nervous." Bonnie admitted. "This feels very serious."

"You're wearing a very serious dress," Tyler said, keeping his eyes on the road, "But yes. It uh, it feels very dramatic right now. My heart is like beat-boxing in my throat for some reason. I feel a little nauseous actually."

"Why?" Bonnie wondered.

"Tonight is our first and last dance together. There's a lot happening in a short space of time, and I think we want it all to be perfect."

"You're right," Bonnie nodded. "Tyler...I'm going to miss you so much."

"It's not goodbye yet." He reminded her, taking her hand in his. "That's still a few weeks away. Okay?"

"Okay." She lifted his hand to her mouth and kissed his knuckles quickly and kept his hand and hers in her lap, drilling every detail of the moment into her memory for what she hoped would be forever.

* * *

_Julia_ by SZA was playing as they arrived.

"Oh!" Bonnie squealed, turning to him with wide eyes.  
"Oh, I'm in." He said, pulling her to the dance floor while a few pairs of eyes followed them.

They moved easily around one another for a few moments, but Tyler pulled her hands so she'd come closer and put his hands on her waist while she sang along.

Opening her eyes Bonnie rested her hands on either side of his face as they moved side to side to the beat; shoulders shimmying to the beat. She loved that he loved dancing too, and that they were both so naturally good at it. It meant the nerves were being pushed further away as their sense of comfort with each other grew around them like a shimmering bubble.

_kiss him, kiss him_

A flash of light went off as someone took a photo of them for the school magazine, and it nipped the tension in the bud.

"Drinks and photos?" Tyler suggested, still with his hands on the small of her waist while they swayed.

"Sounds good." Bonnie kissed him quickly on the mouth, and laughed when he kissed her immediately after. "PG 13."

"Okay, okay. You're right. Come on."

"You two look uh-amay-zing!" Someone called to them and they beamed.

"Alright, _Bennett_!" One of the cheerleaders called out as well.

"Can we take a photo?" Another person asked. "You're best dressed, for sure!"

They nodded, posed, smiled and danced their way to the photo booth.

"This feels like a dream." Bonnie whispered to Tyler while they stood in the queue for the photo booth.

"I'm glad. This is how I want you to remember everything here." Tyler said, eyes sad while his cheeks were flushed from dancing and his mouth curled up and coloured with a brush of her lipstick. She pulled out a tissue from her handbag and cleaned him up.

"You're here. That's all it takes to make me happy." It made her feel a rush of warmth seeing his expression change as he processed her words, pulling her closer to his side as the queue inched forward.

Once their photos were done, Tyler was pulled aside with the rest of the dance committee as they went over a few things, leaving Bonnie to mingle.

She smelled him before she heard his voice. In and amongst the crowd, it irritated her that the scent of her ex-boyfriend could seek her out so efficiently. It used to cover her clothes, her dog after their runs, her bedding...

"Can we talk?" Matt asked from behind her.

"Sure." She said curtly, turning to him with a hollow smile.

"One last dance? You _are_ leaving after all..." His blue eyes looked so dark and hurt. He held his hand out to her.

It suddenly didn't feel right to keep saying no. This could be the last time they ever spoke.

"Fine. _One_," Bonnie held up a finger as she let him lead her out onto the dance floor. "I came here with Tyler and we're not starting anything, got it?" He raised both his hands as they came to stand in front of each other.

"I just want to say goodbye."

_Some Place Else_ by MorMor started playing as they began to dance.

"When do you leave?" He asked, looking down at her with ceaseless warmth. The way he used to.

"Sooner than I'd like," she said, scanning the crowd for Tyler. Bonnie turned back when she felt his shoulders stiffen. "Next week." She said looking him dead on, something she hadn't done in a while. They'd both loved one another once, right? They could both use the closure.

"I'm really sorry we ended the way we did, and that you're leaving the way you are." Matt said earnestly.

"Me too." Was all she could manage to say.

His hand felt both familiar and foreign in hers, like she was trying to summon a dream after waking.

"I am going to miss you." She admitted while they danced slowly.

"All I ask is that you forgive me, even if you forget me." Matt said and that stopped her short. That was it; the thing that made him the guy she'd loved for so long. She could see in his eyes what he was seeing in hers, and it made her pull away a little. A spark of electricity followed their fingers as they stopped dancing, but still held on to each other.

"I forgive you." She said clearly, and honestly.

"I know you felt that." Matt said, trying to close the space between them.

"Yeah well, you claimed to feel that and still managed to _feel_ someone else. So, I don't think that means much anymore, does it?" Bonnie crossed her arms after untangling herself from him. "I'm leaving and we're done and I hope..." she closed her hand around his wrist, "And I hope you're happy and that that means something to you one day long enough for you to let it grow into something else, something bigger, warmer, more _you_...because I _know_ you. I know you haven't been the same since your mom left, but you let her leaving make you someone un-loveable because you refused to see that you had anything left. I was there the whole time Matt and I cared, I loved you...and the fact that we ended the way I hoped my parents would should tell you everything you need to know about where we stand."

He held her gaze for a long time.

"I get it." He said, nodding. "I do. Hey...moving is going to be hard." She felt her heart begin to hurt at all the change that was still coming, even while her life was already in shambles. "Text me if you need someone to talk to, or whatever. In a friend way. I don't want you to be alone."

"I won't be," Bonnie said certainly, eyes lighting up as she looked over his shoulder. Matt turned to see Tyler approaching.

"You guys look good." Was all he said before leaving.

"We really do." Tyler said, kissing her on the forehead and steering her towards their table.

* * *

Stefan was listening to _Soothsayer_ by Sevdaliza when a wave of magic shuddered through him.

"B-" a word bubbled on his lips. "Bennett." Gasping and shooting upright, his headphones fell off, and he startled his cat that'd been sleeping next to his books.

Checking the time, he walked through the long hallways of his house to his mother's study.

Lily had kept tomes in archives for as long as he could remember. Stefan knew he had about twenty minutes before his father checked in.

Running his fingers across the spines of grimoires, diaries and academic texts, he finally found what he was looking for.

_Beatrice Bennett's Diary._

Lily had bought it an an auction of an unknowing hawker, recognizing the name immediately, if he remembered correctly.

Stefan had been raised as a researcher first and foremost by his parents. They'd believed always that the power of knowledge preceded the power of magic.

Knowing where magic came from, knowing all of its iterations was a strength that they insisted upon their children as Salvatores.

But knowledge, as he'd seen, was possessive, commanding, and ego-inducing. Knowledge had ultimately been the thing that had destroyed his family beyond repair.

Taking the diary to his room, he shut the door behind him and put his phone on loud so that it would only ring once before he answered, as his father preferred.

The first thing he noticed was that there were inscriptions, fresher than the original text, scribbled in the margins, signed each time with the letters: E.B. He made a note of that.

"Do you even know what you're doing?" Stefan jumped at the sound of his brother's voice. Eyes checking the room, he moved to looked out to the neighbours house, and saw a silhouette by the bedroom window once more.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" Stefan hissed, his heart still racing.

"I'm un-dead...so _no_." Damon pointed out, his voice deadpan. "Plus, the more _you_ know, the more _I _know...you _know_ that."

"How is that tether still in place?" Stefan seethed.

"Ask dad. He's the one who won't let us die." Stefan's heart skipped a beat.

"-_What_?" He gasped.

* * *

Bonnie was twirling around the dance floor, hands slipping between Tyler's hold as he spun her, before catching her and drawing her to him.

_Mine_ by Beyonce started playing.

"Isn't this the song you're always singing?" Tyler asked. She nodded and pressed her mouth to his, making sure to avoid tongue. There'd be no coming back from that.

"It's a perfect ballad...I mean, Drake's part could go missing and no one would care, but it's...it just _gets_ it." Tyler laughed at that and Bonnie looked up at him; up at the smile she'd always wanted to hold in her hands, whether she knew it before or not.

The overhead lights twisted her vision for a moment _just_ long enough for her to see Tyler's face change to someone else's. The smile and the warmth stayed, but the flash of another boy's face made her jerk a little. He was..._who_ was he?

"What? Are you okay?" Tyler's concerned returned his face to normal and Bonnie's eyes scoured his features, just to be certain.

"I don't know, sorry. It was nothing." Bonnie reassured him quickly, tucking her head under his chin as they moved. "It's been a hell of a week."

"No kidding." Tyler murmured from above her.

_Let's stop holding back on this and let's get carried away_

_Stop making a big deal out of the little things,_

_Cause I got big deals and I got little things_

_I got everything I'm asking for but you..._

"You do have me, you know?" Tyler said, pulling away to look Bonnie in the eye. "I know it's all sudden and soon and somehow also all too late, but, Bonnie, you one hundred percent have _got_ me. Whichever way you want."

"And you have me." She said easily, because it was true. "And it makes me so sad that I'm leaving our home behind to try and save my parents marriage." She would hex them if she could in that moment.

"Maybe it'll work out for them, you know? Be worth it?" Tyler offered. Bonnie loved him for it.

"Right now nothing feels worth losing you." She sighed, eyes tearing up. Tyler was both enamored by her words and terrified of her word choice. He couldn't lose her, not now, not ever.

"But that's what I'm saying," Tyler lifted her chin up, "You're _not_ losing me. _Ever_." He drew in a breath. "Bonnie, I'm in love with you and I love you. That isn't going away."

"I fucking love you," Bonnie said fiercely, letting a tear fall as she went on her toes to kiss him.

With tongue, because there was no going back.

* * *

**A/N:** Well, would you look at that, a decade dance with just the right amount of drama unfolding. We're getting very close to the AHS story-arc that I'll be weaving in, and that's when we get to have some fun! Reviews let me know I'm not screaming into the void like I do on Twitter.

XO


	5. PT V

**Note**: Hello lovelies, it's been about three months since the last update here, and I'm thinking of doing _My Best Friend Eats Boys_ next (unless there's something else you'd like done first, let me know x) and then maybe something older like _Queen's Undoing_ or _Talking in my Sleep_ (help me decide!). This chapter is grounded in character context and I hope it lays the foundation for what I'm hoping will be a pretty great OT3.

_Let Down_ \- Radiohead is the inspiration for this chapter.

* * *

Part V

_one day i'm gonna grow wings_

Stefan Salvatore didn't have any friends.

_Anymore_, that is.

Not that he was felled from popularity by some triumphant hack at the status quo, no.

His brother shot up his high school, and Stefan's life with it.

They'd been a complicated family at best, and a room holding strangers at worst, but Damon was the final nail in the Salvatore coffin.

Rumours of their cursed family had done the rounds in LA for years:

Inheriting the house from Giuseppe's parents, who were rumoured backdoor surgeons was one thing, but losing their firstborn Enzo, then his wife Lily to suicide, then his middle child, and favourite, Damon to a wall of bullets from the S.W.A.T team that had kicked down every door in the house to find him, and only _then_ leaving said house to move next door, meant a few questions marks were tailing the last of the Salvatores at all times.

There had been a family right after them that had moved in thanks to the real estate agent's impressive list of adjectives and elbow grease.

A kind family, with one kid, Mara, who'd waved at Stefan first.

Stefan was struck by Mara; they wore every colour, every texture, and had black orbits with an impossible pull for eyes.

"Who is that? Who is she?" Giuseppe hissed at the commotion of the family moving in, annoyed as he parked his truck in the driveway.

"Neighbours?" Stefan guessed, voice flat. His father killed the engine.

"Hi!" The kid said, closing an eye to the sun as they made their way over, facing the Salvatore men as they got out of the car.

Stefan took a moment to take them in as he rounded the other end of the car. Thick, black twists swung behind them as they walked toward him, perfect, square teeth, three rows of earrings, a septum piercing, and dark green eyebrows over dark brown eyes that matched their skin. Mara wore a dress made of mismatched fabric that Stefan was sure no other human on the planet could pull off.

"Hey," Stefan said, knowing his father would rather choke than speak to anyone that got to live in that house except for him.

"I'm Mara," they held a hand out to Stefan, grinning when he shook it. "We just moved in, _please_ don't be cool enough to ignore your neighbour."

"Cool, I am not." Stefan laughed under his breath, watching his father walk into their house without looking behind him. "I'm Stefan. That's my dad, he doesn't...talk."

"Like, ever?" Mara wondered, eyes following the man as he went inside. "Maybe my mom can take a page out of his book."

"Where are you from?" Stefan wondered, trying to place their accent and their style which could be summarised as something between a coven leader and a DJ.

"Me, or my adoptive parents?" Mara laughed. "Mum's from Brighton, dad's from Gauteng, and they found _me_ in Cape Town."

"So...why LA?"

"We really love traffic." Mara laughed, "It's my dad. He's like...a '_thing_'." They rolled their eyes. "CW network has him in Spandex usually, but we're filming close by, so we've got this place for my term at school."

"What school did they get you in?" Stefan wondered.

"Fuck, uh...what's the name?-"

"Brennan House?" He guessed, hoping they'd say no.

"Shit, that's you?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"That's great!" Mara's face was bright, empathetic and they seemed like a breath of fresh air. "Drive me to school?"

"Stefan!" Giuseppe's voice startled them both and Mara bugged their eyes a little, still smiling.

"_Please_, I don't wanna get lost on my first day?" Puppy-eyes. Clever.

"I'll check with my dad, but I don't mind," Stefan said easily enough, knowing his father would fume.

"I don't want to get you in trouble," Mara said, sweetly.

Stefan was distracted by a sudden chill and looked up to Mara's house, eyes locking with Damon.

He hadn't seen his brother since the funeral, and that hardly counted... for obvious reasons.

"You need to leave," Stefan muttered before he could stop himself.

"What? Did I?-"

"No, Mara," Stefan looked at them, sad. "I'll drive you to school and whatever, but that house...just, don't stay in there too long, okay?"

"We're only here for a few weeks." Mara's smile was cut through with a confused frown.

_Damon if you touch Mara, I'll-_

_You'll what?_

Stefan winced, his worst fears confirmed.

"If anything happens, just, call me okay?" Stefan pressed as gently as he could, he knew he was already crossing the line.

"You could have just asked for my number." Mara joked.

"Google the house," Stefan said, pulling a pen out of his back pocket. "May I?"

"Sure." Mara held out their arm with a small smile. Stefan scribbled his cellphone number on the inside of their arm and went over the numbers again so they were clear. Mara made a note of how gently he held their arm.

"You're serious about his house, huh?" Mara said.

"Just..."

"Call you if I see a poltergeist that looks like your brother?"

Stefan froze stiff. They held each other's gaze for a long while.

_What an astoundingly good guess_, he thought, and while he knew Mara was joking, he was glad they didn't know how exactly right they were.

"I already Googled the house. It was the reason the team got it booked so easily, no one wanted it. _I_ wanted to know why." Mara crossed their arms and shrugged. "I'm sorry about what happened to your family." So they knew about the reports.

"T-thanks." Stefan sighed, kicking the tip of his converse into the ground.

"We're gonna be friends, Stefan." Mara nodded, more to themselves. They wiggled their brows at Stefan, grinning when it garnered a half-smile in return. "Go inside before your father gets madder. I'll see you in the morning."

He watched Mara walk away, every step dropping another brick onto his chest.

He hadn't expected anyone to move in next door for some time; he'd been planning on sneaking in and smudging the house from attic to basement. Maybe an exorcism or two, who knew?

He hadn't expected the person to walk right up to the doors of his biggest secret, his biggest burden, and still see _him_.

He hadn't ever expected to meet someone like Mara.

Ever.

"Hey, Mara," Stefan called out.

They turned, squinting in the sun as he jogged to clear the space between them. "Take this," he handed over a small charm he'd had with him for years.

"Careful, Salvatore," Mara dropped down a step of the front yard as they faced Stefan, cradling the gem in their hands and then smiled down at the boy as he stood at the bottom of the stairs by the gate. "Crystals are my love language."

"Ha, mine too." Stefan scratched the back of his head. "I'm gonna go before I get weirder."

"Too late," Mara teased. "Thank you for this, I'm going to hang it on one of these," they said, fiddling with their assortment of necklaces. "See you for school."

* * *

For the weeks Mara lived next door, the charm held its ground.

He met Mara's parents; both insanely attractive 'film-people'. Mara's dad had grown up in Johannesburg, and his surname had so many clicks in it that Stefan had to mutter a quick spell under his breath to perfect it, so the man wouldn't have to say it twice. Mara's mother was nothing like his had been; Lily had been pale and regal and perpetually unimpressed where Mara's mother had bright red hair and hazel eyes and the most contagious laugh out of the three of them.

They invited Stefan over a few times, and Guiseppe would grit his teeth, but would never say yes or no, so, Stefan went. Mara's dad showed Stefan the props he'd been allowed to keep with him from older shows and films, telling him stories about his youth, and Mara's mom taught him about reiki, gardening, and comedic timing.

Sometimes he'd feel either his brother or his father watching him out back in their old garden but thank god, they let him be.

Mara taught him about starting over, whether they realised it or not. Stefan had known the minute he'd met them, that he was going to miss Mara.

They were ceaselessly kind to anyone that they met and always stood their ground.

He and Mara went to the beach after school most days, and he'd take them to all the places he loved, and the ones where they'd been dying to go. Mara wore the charm every day, and he often caught them fiddling with it.

"I know you don't wanna talk about it, ever," Mara said, "But it must have been hard for you after everything happened, and I want you to know that you can do it, move past it, live your own life and not sit in the shadow of this bad thing that happened, that you had nothing to do with, by-the-way," Mara took his hand as they sat out in the sun on the flat sand of their favourite beach. Their fingers intertwined easily. "Stefan, you're still alive, you know that don't you?"

The two of them had been skirting around each other's bodies since they'd met, and Stefan was sure Mara was the one being careful with him.

He could only stare back after they'd spoken.

_Alive_? When last had he felt alive before this?

Before today, it was yesterday when Mara's mother was playing the cello and their dad began doing an exaggerated interpretive dance to the music, putting everyone in hysterics. Before that, before them...

"Mara," Stefan swallowed nervously, "I'm going to miss the shit out of you."

"...Can, I-" Mara looked up at him through green lashes, eyes catching the glint at the same time their jewellery did.

Stefan was already leaning in when he nodded.

The kiss was perfect.

So perfect, it broke both of their hearts.

He loses his virginity to Mara.

When Mara and their parents _do_ leave, Stefan cries.

Mara's parents are waiting in the car as the two of them hug. It takes a while, but no one bothers them about it, not even Giuseppe, though he stood a few paces away, looking smug.

"Hey, you don't let him bully you into being someone else, ok?" Mara whispered to Stefan, hugging him fiercely. "Okay?"

"Okay," Stefan nodded, sniffling a bit.

Standing on their tippy-toes, Mara kisses both of his cheeks and wipes at his eyes, before kissing him fully on the mouth. Stefan's fingers press into their waist, and he doesn't think twice about stopping time. Just for a moment, he lets himself live there, with Mara.

"Hey," Mara breaths against his lips and the world starts turning again. "Everything happens for a reason."

"I would have married you, you should know that." Mara laughs out loud, and their smile stretches wide.

"I would have said yes, you should know _that_." Mara kisses Stefan once more, and then pulls away, waves once at his father, and climbs into the car.

"We're going to miss you," Mara's mom says, leaning over her husband. "Take care, Stefan."

As they drive off, Stefan lets his heart crumble to the floor.

He'll probably never see them again.

His father scowls, leaning in to whisper in his ear, "I hope this pain is a lesson."

And it was, Stefan agreed internally, it was a lesson that he would never believe his father's word for the gospel ever again.

Months pass.

And then the dreams of Bonnie begin.

* * *

Bonnie Bennett's last bonfire in Mystic Falls.

The day had finally come and while she was ready for the night itself, she wasn't ready to admit that she kept taking steps closer and closer to her leaving for good.

She and Tyler had snuck out of the dance to sit at the edge of town and look at their home together, maybe for the last time. After, he'd dropped her off at the 'reasonable hour' her father had requested and then waited for Bonnie to make the obligatory small-talk with her parents before she met him upstairs in her bedroom where he'd been hiding. He'd known how to sneak into her room for years now and was always looking for an excuse to do so. Falling asleep in his arms, in her bed, in her house, with Gush curled up in his bed, on the floor by Bonnie's side where her arm hung over to play with his fur was something she etched into her brain that night while they'd slept. All of those things, all of the moments they encapsulated. Bonnie drew them all in and shut her eyes.

Her parents had some last-minute arrangements to make, so they'd been up and out quite early, leaving the two to have breakfast before school.

"How are you?" Tyler asked as he flipped over another perfect pancake.

Bonnie was stirring the strawberries and bananas beside him, making a sauce for the pancakes, but she'd been quiet all morning.

"I had a weird dream," she admitted.

"Nightmare?" Tyler wondered, pouring in more batter.

"Kind of." Bonnie turned the heat off and put the saucepan on a cold plate to cool off before they ate. "Sorry, I don't know what- it's like, my dream is evaporating."

"That's okay, come on, food's ready."

"Thanks for cooking," she exhales and grips the back of his neck to hold him closer for longer when he leans in to kiss her forehead.

Tyler pulls her into his arms and notices after a while of holding her that she's started crying.

"I'm sorry," she mutters into his chest, muffling her voice.

"Don't apologise," is all he says as holds her, pulling her a little tighter.

"I'm so sad," Bonnie says, her voice wobbling as he cups her face and holds her gaze. She sees tears form in his eyes, too. "Tyler...I am _so_ fucking s-sad."

"We don't have to go to school, _fuck_ school." He vows, gently wiping at her tears.

Her face is warm and her eyes are shining from hurt and he can't make it better. It flattens him out.

"It's the last day, Ty. My last day. We have to." Bonnie sits upright and wipes quickly at her face. "I can do it."

* * *

Walking into the school lot, they hold hands and Tyler is almost begging someone to say something about it so he can pick a fight. So he can do something with all the helplessness churning inside of him, so he can do something, _anything_ about how Bonnie feels right now.

She'd planned her last school outfit weeks ago, so of course, she looked beautiful in the short white dress, her hair flowing out in thick waves, but her green eyes were hard and tired-looking.

As they walk toward the left side of the building, Bonnie sees the cheer team across the way, all dressed up in their uniforms and her heart squeezes a bit.

Caroline sees her and grins, throwing Bonnie off. The team jog over and get into formation in front of the couple.

"Say what you want, Bennett, but we know you're gonna miss us and you're one of the best flyers we've ever had, so-" Caroline counts them down and they begin Bonnie's favourite routine. "Come on, I know you want in." Caroline beamed, throwing her pom-poms over to Bonnie, who caught them quickly and looked up at Tyler.

"_Go_," he says under his breath, happy to have the distraction, too.

"Give me a 'B'!" Caroline yells.

"_B_!" The small crowd had quickly turned into a gathering of students, who had known Bonnie their whole lives, too.

"Give me an 'O'!" They run through Bonnie's name, and the series of kicks and tumbling, before hoisting Bonnie up in the air to a round of applause.

"What does it spell?" The cheer captain cried out.

"_Bonnie_!"

"Who's the baddest flyer we ever had?" Caroline calls out again.

"_Bonnie_!" The crowd cheers.

"Come on," Caroline says after setting Bonnie back down on the ground. "There's one more thing."

* * *

"When you said 'one more thing'?" Bonnie's eyes narrowed as they approached the football players, and she reached instinctually for Tyler's hand.

"Hey, you were a part of the team, they're going to miss you," Caroline said, fiddling with her pom-poms.

"Thanks, Caroline," Bonnie said after a beat. "It was really nice of you to do that."

"Well, losing you as a friend kind of put the fire under my ass to be a better person, so."

"I'm gonna miss you, too," Bonnie said, holding her arms out.

Caroline's face pinched into its trademark happy-sad-relieved smile and she swept Bonnie up into a spinning hug.

"You're going to do amazing in LA, for sure."

"Thanks, Care," Bonnie's smile twisted her mouth to the side.

"Can I have your attention, please?" The girls turned to the football players, and they were joined with members of the debate team, some of the cheerleaders, Jeremy, even Matt had come.

Tyler cleared his throat.

"Because we left so early, we kind of missed the announcement of best dressed last night."

"No way," Bonnie stepped forward.

"Bonnie Bennett I present to you, the Old Hollywood Royalty crown," Caroline revealed it from behind her. Bonnie wondered for a split second where she'd been keeping the thing all along, but brushed it off instead of asking.

"_What_?" Bonnie laughed. "There's no way, you rigged it cause you felt bad."

"I would never give away a crown to someone because I _felt_ bad," Caroline dismissed, "I have standards."

"There she is," Tyler muttered with a chuckle.

"You _guys_," Bonnie clutched at her heart. "I'm gonna fucking miss everyone here. Jer, Amanda, Brett... _fuck_, now I'm crying before class!" Everyone laughed, but then a chorus of 'awws' took over as everyone came in for a hug.

Tyler looked over Bonnie's head, resting his chin on her head as they all hugged, caught Caroline's eye and mouthed '_thank you_'.

* * *

The bonfire was in full swing by the time Bonnie and Tyler arrived.

"Ugh, are they playing Migos?" Tyler asked, brows furrowed.

"I don't care," Bonnie turned to him with a broad smile, head resting against the car seat. Her eyes were still shining, but bright and happy. She'd spent most of the day chugging down nostalgia and milkshakes from the Grille. This was her idea of heaven. "Thank you for today."

"That was a group effort," Tyler said with a lift of his shoulder. "This morning all I wanted to do was give you a reason to smile and then, boom, people had your back."

"No, I know," Bonnie said, taking his hand, "But I meant for all the parts where you just held my hand, or threw your arm over my shoulder, or pulled me a little closer, or said nothing when we got stopped for the _fiftieth_ time in the halls for people to say goodbye." He waved her off with his free hand.

"You deserve nothing less, Bon, but you're welcome."

"Come on... I wanna dance with you!"

* * *

Stefan was flipping through the Bennett journal again when he heard laughter in the distance.

Almost immediately he could tell it wasn't a physical distance that separated him from the sound, but a spiritual one.

Did that mean...ghost?

"Please, no more ghosts," Stefan muttered to himself, hitting send on a reply to a video Mara had sent him of them surfing in Llundudno in Cape Town.

"Tyler, I think I'm drunk," the girl said, her voice bouncing off of the walls, another giggle ringing in the warlock's ears.

"..._Hello_?" Stefan gasped, recognising the voice from the girl in his dreams.

* * *

"How many beers have you had?" Tyler chuckled, before noticing the far-away look in Bonnie's eyes. Not sad, or distracted, simply... gone. "..._Bon_?"

* * *

"Who said that?" Bonnie asked Stefan, stepping into view out of the darkest corner of his bedroom. "Wait, who are you?"

"I, uh, Stefan," Stefan stuttered awkwardly. Her face was flushed, green eyes shining with joy, even as she stepped cautiously towards him.

She was _drunk_.

"Do I know you?" Bonnie wondered, coming to stand two feet from him, craning her neck to look him in the eye.

Her perfume curled into his nose, and suddenly he felt a little under the influence, too.

"No, but I know _of_ you, and...uh, I think you're moving next door to me."

"Is that so?" Bonnie looked around his room, but clasped her hands together; scared to touch anything in case she was able to. That would probably have sent her over the edge. "And where do you live?"

"Los Angeles," Stefan said, and her eyes snapped back on his.

"What do you mean you know _of_ me?" Bonnie asked, curling her fingers around the word 'of'.

"I don't...uh, I can't really explain it."

"You're just a kid and all, but you wouldn't know anything about a hovering set of crystals in the woods, would you?" Bonnie asked, eyes sharpening, as she made notes of his reaction. Something had happened to her, for sure.

"A hovering...did you say _crystals_?" Stefan asked, fretting.

* * *

"Bonnie?" Tyler didn't want to draw too much attention to either of them, but it had been a good, tense couple of seconds with his girlfriend staring off into the dark. Looking over his shoulder, he followed her gaze and his eyes locked on a pair of glowing white eyes, hovering across the clearing, and his mind went immediately to when they'd been in the woods walking Gush and they'd seen the crown. "_Hell_ no." He hissed and gripped Bonnie's hand.

* * *

"Yes, crystals, why?" Bonnie asked, before looking over her shoulder.

"What is it?" Stefan asked, taking in her worry.

"Something weird is happening to me." She muttered under her breath. "And each time, it's like I'm being reminded that I don't have control over _anything_."

"What do you mean?" Stefan asked, but her eyes had shifted off, and out of focus. Just as suddenly, she zeroed in on him again.

"I'm Bonnie, by the way."

"..._Bonnie_."

"Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna try to figure out how to get back to my boyfri-" and she was gone.

"Bonnie," Stefan repeated to himself. "Her name's Bonnie."

* * *

**A/N**: A nice long-ish chapter to pass the time.

I love writing OC characters! Flavour!

Review to tell me what you think is going on with the crystals, and/or what I should update next.

Message me if you wanna talk about everything and nothing in these strange times, my P.M door is always open.


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